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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26780938">The Dagshelgr Invocation</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/only_blue/pseuds/al-the-remix'>al-the-remix (only_blue)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Men's Hockey RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(but not how you think...), Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst and Romance, Dragons, Elves, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mating Rituals, Mutual Pining</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:07:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,275</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26780938</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/only_blue/pseuds/al-the-remix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Zhenya noticed Sid, he smiled, and Sid looked away. No, Sid would not stay. He’d sing for the ocean, one of the three women in his heart, along with his blade and his ship. And he’d sing for the fish and all the creatures that lived in the sea, and good fortune on the waters and that he might be lucky enough to wake up every morning alive, at least until his job was complete. Then Sid might go back to Sharktooth and capture a sea-viper, tame it and ride it the way no one said could be done.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This fic is based off of the lore in the Eragon books. There isn't anything in here that you have to be a fan of the books to understand, but I included a glossary in the second chapter just in case! There are also a few things I made up mixed in. Hope you enjoy!</p><p> </p><p>A big thanks to sevenfists for betaing this fic :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The port was just how Sid remembered it, sitting on the far Northern edge of Du Weldenvarden where the coastline hugged the sprawling forest, far past where any human maps reached and kept hidden by the trees and the magic that protected them. Silver waters glimmered and bounced light gently off the white sails of the docked ships. It was nothing like the turbulent water of the sea, angry and black. At this point, Sid was not sure which he preferred. He had grown to love the fickle nature of the boundless open ocean and he felt more off-balance here in the calm, lapping waters of the port than he ever had amidst a storm or battle.</p><p>Sid’s crew disembarked from his warship, the largest in the fleet. They looked relieved, as much as elves could. Most of them had had to earn their sea legs, not born with them like Sid who had grown up in the small elven settlement on Sharktooth Island. They would relish this time back on land, however fleeting, in a way Sid would never understand. He never missed the exhaustive rituals and customs of his society; he preferred life on his ship where every day was a simple matter of surviving daybreak till dusk and all of his troubles seemed very far away.</p><p>They would only be in Ellesmera for a night, long enough for Sid to converse with the council and participate in Dagshelgr, and then he would resupply their ship and travel back to the port city where he and his crew would depart once more.</p><p>Travelling through the crowds of elves, flowing to and from the ship like rivers of ants, each one of them with a crucial task, Sid found the horses he'd been searching for grazing peacefully in wait over the lea at the edge of the forest. Sid walked up to a large dapple grey. He had a swath of white mane that reminded Sid of sea foam, and his colouring stood out against the fleet of pure white horses surrounding him. Sid touched a hand to his neck. <em>“Asfaloth,”</em> Sid called out his name, inquiring if he’d be willing to accompany them on their journey. When he got his reply, Sid shared with him their plans: they would lead Sid’s men to Ellesmera where Asfaloth would be handsomely compensated with many apples and lush green meadows to graze on.</p><p>The flicker of Asfaloth’s agreement brushed against Sid’s mind, a muddle of colours and foreign feelings. He too was thinking about Dagshelgr and Sid had to force himself to be polite and not roll his eyes or think anything outwardly untoward. It seemed Sid would not be escaping talk of the invocation until he once again left this landmass for the sea.</p><p>He mounted the grey steed and whistled, gathering his men. They had found themselves partners for their travel while Sid had been engaging his, each one now mounted on white horses. Sid whistled again, long and low. A flurry of crows gathered in the sky and swept forth into a cloud that trailed Sid as he led his company into the dark awaiting maw of Du Weldenvarden like charcoal smudges drawn across paper.</p><p>There was a harsh <em>caw</em> from above and a dark shadow fluttered down to land--none so gently--on Sid’s shoulder. Peering scornfully at Sid with his one good eye, Llyr cawed again, louder into his ear this time as if accusing Sid of leaving him behind.</p><p>“Lazy old bird,” Sid muttered, and sharp talons dug into the muscle of his shoulder for that remark. Sid did not mind as it distracted him from his thoughts on other things, as he was encased by the forest and all the things living inside it. In that moment, his stomach felt more troubled than it ever had on choppy seas.</p><p>+</p><p>It took three days' ride for Sid’s company to reach the heart of Du Weldenvarden where the trees were the largest he’d ever seen, gnarled and twisted with age. The forest was in the winter of its life, and these trees were some of the oldest living things in Alagaesia. The air was cool and damp from yesterday's rain, the black canopy of pine needles blocking any columns of sunlight from breaking through.</p><p>Even though he knew the way, there were moments when Sid felt hopelessly lost. Prickly verdant walls rolled out around him like an unfamiliar sea, caging them in from every side. Shadowy beasts slithered in and out of the trees, formless shapes that Sid had never seen before and would likely never see again. He had spent nights in beach caves that were more welcoming. Water droplets cascaded down from the fir trees in myriad little waterfalls, splashing against the nape of his neck and dampening his hair. Sid fought off another shiver. Distracting himself from the cold and wet by listening to the chatter of jackdaws and the sporadic chuckle of the nuthatches, Sid wondered how much longer it would take for the gateway to show itself.</p><p>He fought off another shiver, though this one wasn’t caused by a chill. There was a soft probing at the walls of his mind, and Sid clamped them down hard around him like an iron gate, scolding himself for letting his barriers go lax. The forest had a way of doing that to you, relaxing the muscles and lulling the mind, especially in moments like these when so many magic folk gathered within its shaded walls. Sid refused to bend to the forest's whim.</p><p>The presence prowling at the borders of his mind glowed red like an ember, warming Sid from the inside out. Sid’s gut twisted like knotted wood in fleeting recognition before the presence, and the warmth that accompanied it, was gone once again.</p><p>Sid didn’t have a moment to ruminate further, as seemingly all at once the buttery light of early morning pierced the umbra in pinpoints, filling the glade that opened up before them with blades of sunshine, limning everything it touched in liquid gold. Dewdrops clung to the grass like clear jewels and flowers bloomed in the most vibrant colours. Sid could hear the distant babble of a stream he couldn’t see.</p><p>It was a guise meant to distract, like an artfully painted screen. It buzzed with a magic that made Sid’s eyelids feel weighty as if he might like to lie down for a nap and never rise.</p><p>Sheathed in a ray of light, an elf stepped forth from the leafy cover: Gilderien the wise, the protector of Ellesmera. His expression was tranquil, his robes silver and flowing, and his face held a maturity to it that was rarely seen; there were few in the city as old as he. Sid gave the formal greeting, touching his fingers to his lips and speaking first as was respectful. He felt another touch to his mind, this one unintrusive, like a leaf skimming the surface of a pond, just enough to assess Sid’s business in the ancient city.</p><p>The elf smiled and lifted his palms, welcoming them in. The trees at the far edge of the glade thinned and transformed until their twisted shapes became clear and Sid could make out graceful buildings that grew from the pines. Sid and his men rode into the town on a street of loam and moss. Many of the soldiers dismounted and broke off like streams of a river parting and disappearing deeper into the forest city. The inhabitants of Ellesmera appeared from their houses, chattering and singing in harmony and untethered happiness.</p><p>Unlike them, Sid didn’t have time to relax yet. He dismounted Asfaloth, thanking him for his service, and watched the horse trot off, driven by some unknown purpose.</p><p>Before Sid could entertain thoughts of anything else, like sleep, or food, he climbed the old root stairs towards the council hall to report to Queen Islanzadi. The trees around him flattened and merged until they became the walls of a great hall, stretching up sixty feet before fading into the leafy canopy that was the ceiling. There was a long table down the center, positioned on a carpet of moss and lichen and at the end, Islanzadi rose from her throne. She opened her arms to him as if Sid were a child of her own and embraced him.</p><p>Once again, Sid had to hold back the instinct to roll his eyes. She was always generous with her affection when he did as she pleased.</p><p>Blagden, her white raven, squawked and chimed obnoxiously. Besides his rare strokes of intuition, Sid considered him to be one of the dumbest birds Sid had ever encountered. Famed oracle or no, Sid found him to be nothing more than a nuisance. Llyr ruffled on his shoulder, pleased, and Sid scratched his head.</p><p>Islanzadi snapped his attention away from his companion. “I look forward to your participation in Dagshelgr tonight. It is fortuitous that you should bring your soldiers back just in time for such an occasion,” she said as if she had not explicitly instructed him so. “There may be a dragon rider born this year yet!” There was the monotone grumble of agreement from the lords and ladies seated at the table behind him, Sid’s father among them. He nodded to him on the way out.</p><p>Sid’s head was heavy with exhaustion and his stomach was sore with hunger but still, he found his feet leading not to his home, but down a familiar, overgrown path. As he got closer he could hear the throbbing pound of metal being beaten. His eyes caught a spray of sparks erupting from between the leaves as he pushed into the clearing.</p><p>“Go find a branch to perch on,” he muttered to Llyr, shooing him till the bird flew away, giving one last spiteful dig into Sid’s shoulder as he launched.</p><p>“Our fearless captain has returned!” a voice crowed, and Sid couldn’t help but feel his lips twitch up into the first smile of the day.</p><p>The man who had been hunched over the furnace dropped the tools in his hands and held them out palm up in a gesture of reverence. “Let me see her.”</p><p>It was a presumptive request, to demand someone else’s sword like that, but it was Zhenya’s sword first, Sid reasoned, as were all blades born from his hammer and anvil. And either way, Sid did not mind. He handed Reona over obediently.</p><p>“Ah, my love,” Zhenya cooed at the blade. His face was lit with the bloody light of the coals. “I’m happy to see you haven’t dulled her with your abuse, hacking away at Urgals and monsters alike.”</p><p>“Their armour is no match for her blade,” Sid praised, and Zhenya’s eyes twinkled as if they were lit from the inside with embers themselves.</p><p>The corners of his mouth slid up into a lupine grin and Sid swallowed past the lump in his throat. If Zhenya was filled with merry dancing embers, Sid was filled with coal. He crossed his arms over his chest as his feelings caught up with him and further clumped up his throat. “She does not need to be sharpened?” he managed.</p><p>Zhenya handed her back, handle first, and held the blade tight when Sid gripped the handle. He did not dare to draw it from Zhenya’s hands like this, for she was indeed wicked sharp. So the sword hung there, suspended between the two of them like a bridge.</p><p>“You’ve treated her well,” Zhenya said in a low tone that caressed Sid’s skin like the softest kit leather.</p><p>Sid broke eye contact first and Zhenya finally let go. He resheathed her, and when Sid finally looked back up, Zhenya was still watching him inquisitively, his gaze not totally unlike that of one of Sid’s crows.</p><p>Sid clumsily grasped for something to say. “Are you joining us tonight for Dagshelgr, or are you going to remain a hermit here, with your metal?”</p><p>Zhenya’s mouth quirked. “Funny thing for you to accuse me of when I know you’d prefer to be hiding out at sea like last year, and the year before that.”</p><p>“That’s not true,” Sid grumbled, even though it was.</p><p>“So you say." Zhenya looked down, and for the first time during their conversation sounded almost bitter. Sid’s heart clenched painfully. Zhenya was his friend, and he had missed Sid’s presence during his years gone; that was all.</p><p>When Zhenya looked back up all bitterness had been wiped clean from his face and his voice as if it had never been there to begin with. He turned back to his work and picked up his tools. “Put a thought to who you’re going to bed?” Zhenya teased, between sharp, methodical beats of his hammer.</p><p>Sid bristled and slid him an unamused glance, which Zhenya deftly ignored. He was needling, playing with Sid on purpose as he did, as he always had, ever since they met as children of twenty when Sid had moved to this place. Sid used to be fond of his teasing but now that Zhenya had passed his first-century last year and Sid was well on his way to his own, he found he had not missed Zhenya’s teasing during his time at sea. Or maybe he did, but it was just too much to contemplate why.</p><p>“With the war going on, it’s more important than ever,” Sid replied blandly as he had heard many others say and as he repeated whenever anyone asked him about the yearly ceremony.</p><p>Zhenya hummed in agreement and clanged his hammer down once again. “The Queen wants baby riders for the Varden.”</p><p>“We could always harness the Fanghwal,” Sid said. He had been thinking about it for years, though no one ever entertained his suggestions.</p><p>Zhenya snorted, as he always did when Sid brought this up. “Your sea-vipers won’t help us win the war,” he scoffed.</p><p>Sid thought that was an unfair presumption. The Fanghwal were just as vicious as dragons, crueler and smaller, and tricksier too. Sid liked them quite a bit indeed.</p><p>“I want to know what the clouds feel like on my face.” Sid closed his eyes, imagining it for a moment, and smiled to himself quietly. “I want to see how different it is from the smoke on the water.” When he opened his eyes again, Zhenya was watching him with an expression he couldn’t quite place, or maybe he just didn’t want to. “I don’t see how that’s so strange.”</p><p>“It’s not,” Zhenya agreed, with that same tinge to his voice, like he knew something Sid didn’t.</p><p>“I’ll see you tonight,” Sid said briskly. He had had enough of this conversation and his stomach yearned for a meal. He was still caked with the sweat and dirt of the day's ride. He did not know why he had thought it would be a good idea to come here. Zhenya was obviously perfectly fine, untouched by the war and as unchanged as ever. Sid need not linger.</p><p>He turned to leave, whistling to Llyr, who gracelessly reseated himself upon Sid’s shoulder. Just as he was about to leave the clearing, Zhenya called out to him once more.</p><p>“Not if I find you first,” Zhenya said, a grin splitting his face, flooding his complexion once again with lambent light. That light seeped and pooled at the root of Sid’s belly, and with that, Sid had to leave.</p><p>+</p><p>Sid’s home had been left untouched by all but time. It was suspended between two grand oaks and hidden behind a spray of poplar trees whose green leaves fluttered and shivered like glitter in the wind. They would be even more lush and green tomorrow, after the ceremony when they had sung the forest to life.</p><p>Sid brushed the dust from the surfaces of his furniture with a flick of magic as he passed them, only to pause at his dining table where a basket filled with fruits and vegetables, lush and ripe, sat waiting for him. Beside it, written into the dust with a slim fingertip was a message: <em>“Wash me please, from Zhenya,”</em> accompanied by a smile.</p><p>This, Sid wiped away slowly with his palm.</p><p>He bit into a rich green apple, wiping dribbles of juice from his chin as he checked the rest of his home. His wards had been left undisturbed and his scrolls untampered with.</p><p>Tempering down the same thrill he always felt when he handled it, Sid pulled a weighty purse from where it was tied securely to his belt. He grabbed a box from his desk and with the most attentive of care, placed his purse and its contents inside. Suffusing the wood of the box with protective wards, Sid placed it back on his desk: sometimes the best hiding places were the ones out in the open no one would expect.</p><p>Outside, he could hear the bustle of elves preparing for the feast that night. Some were singing along merrily to their tasks; others played airy instruments in light tunes. Below his window, someone sang of a frog who had foolishly fallen in love with a kingfisher. It was jovial and light-hearted, but soon all those voices would meld together and sing the most ancient and secret of themes. A spell would be cast over the whole of Du Weldenvarden while they gathered and frolicked like madcap dancers.</p><p>Sid tried to draw up inside him even half the excitement they felt, but he only remained sore and tired. He sighed and began unbuckling his greaves and bracers. He pulled the leather-backed mail shirt from his chest, feather-light and also crafted by Zhenya, every circle of metal expertly and patiently welded shut. It was a beautiful piece, carefully crafted, and it had served Sid well. He was still alive, after all.</p><p>Pulling his dirty tunic from his body, Sid looked down at himself. His body was skinny and gnarled, his face itchy with stubble and his hair matted. His neglect in his appearance was fine on a ship, but was no way to present himself in the presence of his peers. Sid resigned himself to a bath and was glad in the end that he did, for the water was hot and pleasant-smelling and it soothed his many aches and pains. From there it was easy to float as if in a dream to his bed, drifting down into the threshold between sleep and wakefulness as if his consciousness was a feather gently being set down by a breeze. His last waking thought was that maybe he’d sleep through the whole event entirely and that he would be pleased to do so: he needed the sleep.</p><p>He should have known better than to think it would be that easy.</p><p>+</p><p>When Sid woke his blood was hot and singing. Voices drifted in through his window, winding together, high and enchanting. They sang the tune that had haunted his thoughts for months. It was dusk, and the fading purples and oranges of twilight swaddled the horizon as slowly the daylight receded and one by one the stars blinked to life over the dark canopy of trees.</p><p>Quickly, Sid pulled on his leggings and pulled a fresh tunic over his head. The fabric was like butter against his skin, so much softer than anything he had worn at sea.. Smoothing the fabric down his chest, he reached for his sword and hesitated. He shouldn’t bring it; it was not tradition to carry weapons on this night. But it had never left his side and it would be like leaving his house without his right arm.</p><p>Sid remained locked in place for what felt like eternity as his mind flipped and flopped. He was here even if he didn’t want to be, and he might as well make the minimum effort. It was only one night, after all. Grabbing an old belt instead, he fastened it around his waist. It was simple and it would do the trick.</p><p>He thumped down the stairs and out the door barefoot, his feet sinking into the soft, plush moss for the first time in years. He sighed and curled his toes. Maybe there were a few things he had missed while at sea.</p><p>The paths between the trees were lit with twinkling lightning bugs and red floating lanterns glowing with magic. They reminded Sid of hovering fairies, basking the passing faces with an eerie glow and drawing streams of elves deeper into the forest. Their complexions were filled with joy and they swayed back and forth as they sang, migrating towards the Menoa tree.</p><p>Sid followed their pilgrimage, slotting himself into the flow of bodies. He could hear the rustle of beasts and plants alike beyond the trees and he could feel their spirits singing along with his own as if they were one large pulsing heart. Fleets of birds flew overhead, calling and trilling. Frogs croaked, and the <em>weet-weet</em> of cicadas completed the melody. Sid side-stepped a family of hedgehogs that trundled past him and smiled despite himself.</p><p>They would sing until dawn and then everyone would pair off to lie with their mates, as was accustomed. Those without a mate could easily find another to fill their bed for the night. There were no rules, but Sid was not ignorant that the purpose of the Dagshelgr was to produce younglings. The trees would be ripe with buds and the animals would be fertile, preparing nests for their young that would no doubt follow.</p><p>Elf children were rare--a byproduct of immortality--and Sid wasn’t blind to the fact that he had been called back here because Islanzadi thought that as a warrior his blood was strong and his seed was potent.</p><p>Sid had no mate. He held no interest in penetrating the soft, ripe flesh of a woman he did not know well for the sake of children only to leave in the morning and possibly never be seen again. Sid was by no means the oldest here, not even by half; he was as young as a sapling by many elves’ standards. But he had been in this world long enough to experience many things and he knew that was not what his blood sang for this night.</p><p>They gathered in circles around the massive web of roots at the base of the Menoa tree like ripples in a pond. He grasped the hands of the elves to either side of him. Sid would sing through the night and then when everyone’s hands had unlocked to reach for one another’s bodies, Sid would recede back into the trees.</p><p>His mind decided, he let himself get caught up in the tune.</p><p>Time was a hard thing to keep track of. Sid would have sworn only an hour or so had passed, but when he opened his eyes and looked at where the moon hung in the sky, it was clear that the night had almost reached its end. Sid caught Zhenya’s eye across the circle. He was visible just along the edge of Menoa’s great trunk. His skin was lit in a way that made it look like he glowed from the inside out. Sid thought about the story of Linnea and how she loved another who didn’t love her back with the same fierceness and so she sang herself into her first love: this tree.</p><p>When Zhenya noticed Sid, he smiled, and Sid looked away. No, Sid would not stay. He’d sing for the ocean, one of the three women in his heart, along with his blade and his ship. And he’d sing for the fish and all the creatures that lived in the sea, and good fortune on the waters and that he might be lucky enough to wake up every morning alive, at least until his job was complete. Then Sid might go back to Sharktooth and capture a sea-viper, tame it and ride it the way no one said could be done.</p><p>The grip on each of his hands went slack. Sid pulled his hands free and turned away from the celebrations, stepping quietly along the crushed pine needle path as he passed assignations tucked against tree trunks and bodies pressed together in fern beds, rocking to the same sound that throbbed in his temples. Sid’s blood drummed with the intensity of it. He wasn’t left unaffected, and still, he was mulishly determined to at least wait till he got back to his home where he could furiously relieve himself in peace. His thoughts flowed with such a current he missed the soft pad of feet behind him.</p><p>Fingers brushed his arm and Sid spun on his toes, reaching for the blade at his hip that was not there.</p><p>Zhenya’s face was unimpressed, if mildly amused. “Your defences are low. It’s a wonder you survived the war at all.”</p><p>“The war isn’t over, I’ve survived nothing,” Sid snapped at Zhenya, whose face was as calm and tranquil as a pond, accustomed to Sid’s outbursts. Sid softened. Even if Zhenya was a part of his frustrations, he didn’t deserve Sid’s ire. “I apologize, I’ve been distracted of late,” Sid muttered.</p><p>“I’m sure you have, as have we all,” Zhenya said drily and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Sid’s face heated and he didn’t dare look below Zhenya’s belt. Instead, Sid turned his head and looked longingly in the direction of home, the slick sounds echoing from the forest around them making his hair stand on end. He had gotten so close.</p><p>Distractedly, Sid muttered, “Are you not going to go find a partner?” When he got no answer he turned back around.</p><p>Zhenya’s face was all hard lines, skin pulled tight, all of his earlier fondness receded. “You are a stubborn fool.”</p><p>Sid’s blood crackled in his veins. “If you’re just going to insult me you can leave me alone, I didn’t ask for your company,” he bit, and turned to flee again, but this time Zhenya caught his wrist, not trusting words to stop Sid’s retreat.</p><p>“This is your only night here free of obligation for at least another year, do you really want to spend it playing games?” He looked sad, and it only furthered Sid’s annoyance with him.</p><p>“I don’t play games,” Sid said, too wound up to be embarrassed about the fine tremor that radiated from his voice through his limbs. “And if you think this night is free of obligation then you are a greater fool than I.”</p><p>Sid tried to tear his wrist free but Zhenya’s grip was as strong as the iron he bent to his will. His face was determined and unwavering as he pulled Sid into him, moving with the intent to brush their mouths together, but Sid pushed him away. Sid was strong, too.</p><p>He took in Zhenya’s surprised frowning face. “I don’t want to fuck you,” Sid spat. It felt mean but the words were true. They didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the things he wanted from Zhenya. His voice trembled when he spoke again. “I want more than that, I want--” He lost his steam, defeated by the impossible vastness of his own feeling. He looked away, down at where their toes dug into the pine needles, Sid’s pale and ghostly, Zhenya’s long and tanned.</p><p>Sid started when Zhenya’s rough fingertips touched the side of his face, easing into it as they caressed from the corner of his eye down his newly smooth cheek and cupped him there. Zhenya’s mind brushed against his like a brightly coloured bird flitting past a windowpane. Sid wanted to chase it and luxuriate in the feeling of him. Those were the same long fingers that had left Sid a teasing message in the dust, attached to the man who had picked him food and built Sid armour; his good friend.</p><p>Zhenya took a step closer, till their toes were almost touching in the soil. “Tell me what you want,” he whispered, and Sid sucked in a breath, filling his lungs with the earthy scent of the forest and remnants of burning metal that lingered in Zhenya’s hair and in his clothes.</p><p>“The Queen wants mates who can produce young to be brought to the eggs and tested as riders, and everyone else wants flings before the ships leave.”</p><p>Zhenya frowned. “Is that what you want?” Sid shook his head <em>no.</em> “Then that’s not what I asked.”</p><p>Sid pressed his lips into a thin line. His eyes were as infuriatingly level with Zhenya’s collar bones as ever where they poked out of the low neck of his shirt. He was so tall. In the low light, Sid caught the glint of a chain settled lovingly in the hollow of his throat. Sid hadn’t gotten close enough to notice it before. Compelled by some unknown urge, Sid hooked his finger through the chain and pulled it from beneath the cloth.</p><p>Dangling from his fingers was a familiar chunk of misshapen metal: a byproduct of Sid’s last clumsy attempt at metalsmithing.</p><p>Warm breath tickled Sid’s ear, and Zhenya’s voice was laced with rueful endearment when he spoke: “You never were very good.”</p><p>“You kept this?” Sid asked, his throat suddenly wicked of all moisture.</p><p>Zhenya lay his hand over Sid’s and the deformed ring. “Of course. You gave it to me.”</p><p>Carelessly. Carelessly Sid had tossed it to Zhenya and told him to keep it, because Sid did not want it, soured by the reminder of something he was not good at. But Zhenya had kept it and fastened it to a chain of his own fine making and wore it under his shirt, where his skin kept the metal warm, by his heart. Sid no longer felt sour looking at it. He was not sure how to feel at all.</p><p>“You gave it to me before you left--which you did without even saying goodbye--” Zhenya’s voice cracked halfway through and Sid felt it like a blow to the chest.</p><p>“It hurt me too much to say it,” he confessed, caressing the ring of metal lightly. “And I--I didn’t think you cared either way.”</p><p>Zhenya made a wounded noise and when Sid looked up his face was warped into an expression of deep pain Sid had never seen before. He brought his other hand up to bracket Sid’s face in his palms. “Like I said, a fool.”</p><p>This time when Zhenya kissed him, he did it with his whole body. Sid’s feet tripped over themselves as he was backed up against a tree with a soft <em>thud.</em> He didn’t fight it this time. Zhenya’s mouth was thick and lush against his, like the forest around them. Sid opened himself to him and was hit with a deluge of longing, swelling his senses until he could near burst.</p><p>Normally awareness came to him in pinpricks of light like stars coming to life in the night sky, but this was like being swept up in a flurry, leaving him vulnerable and exposed. Sid slowed his breathing--no one was going to attack him here on this night--and eased his mind, relaxing into the bed of consciousnesses he felt alongside his own. He could sense the pleasure of the creatures in the forest and everything that surrounded them, the sensations rolling over him like a burning plain fire, hot and quick, all the way down to his toes, making his scalp tingle and his gut tighten. Zhenya stood out among them, Sid’s Polaris, his brightest star.</p><p>Before the feeling could take him over completely, Sid pulled away. “I don’t want to do this here.” Not up against a tree out in the open.</p><p>Zhenya gave him a confused frown and began to pull further away, but Sid caught him by the hips. “You asked me what I wanted?” Zhenya’s eyes were hungry voids absorbing his every word. “I want you somewhere where I can take my time. Where I can hold you properly, and I want to fuck you there because you are my <em>mate.</em>”</p><p>Zhenya smashed their lips together and where they touched, Sid’s blood sizzled like water dropped on hot stones. He sucked on Zhenya’s tongue until he peeled away and tugged on Sid’s hand. “Show me.”</p><p>Sid pulled him along a path into the cool half-light of the forest. He could still feel the effects of the invocation ringing like bells in his head, melodies of love and lust and yearning. They made him hot with the reminder of the things he had sung. With trembling fingers, Sid pulled the belt from Zhenya’s waist, letting it land heavily in the underbrush, and pushed the shirt from his shoulders, appreciating the slow reveal of skin. He evoked the milky bodies of nymphs sheathed in seafoam Sid had glimpsed between cresting waves. But in the misty bloom of moonlight, Zhenya was more real than any of the dreams Sid had had at sea.</p><p>Sid dragged his thumb along the arch of Zhenya’s eyebrow, down to the scar on his cheek. His eyes were the deep ruddy brown of petrified wood and Sid just took a moment to appreciate him. He wouldn’t get to again for a long time.</p><p>Zhenya cupped the hand cradling his cheek with his own. “What is it?”</p><p>Sid took his hand and kissed him in the centre of his palm. “I missed you so much." Sid’s voice cracked and Zhenya’s face crumpled. This time, when he kissed Sid, it was slow with tender feeling.</p><p>Zhenya helped Sid pull the belt from his own waist, then his tunic and leggings. They dropped down into the bed of ferns and Sid stripped him of his remaining garments. Zhenya lay sprawled. He was all smooth, hairless skin and long lines everywhere. He opened so easily for Sid to fit into that warm space between his legs, unselfconscious. Sid’s cock was heavy and he had been ready to fuck for hours but he had never in his life felt as urgent as he did now with Zhenya beneath him.</p><p>Sid let his hands roam over Zhenya’s broad shoulders, exploring the thick twist of muscle he had built working in the forge, the thin almost delicate skin stretched between his slender hips, and the endless expanse of his legs. Sid ran his palm down the length of one covetously, taking a shuddering breath. He had imagined this many times but that was nothing compared to having Zhenya here with him in person. Nothing like feeling the harmony of Zhenya’s emotions weaving with his own. He had the sleek body of an elf native to Du Weldenvarden, all long limbs and skinny joints compared to Sid’s own more stocky build. Zhenya used to tease him all the time that Sid must be part dwarf.</p><p>Sid laughed aloud at the memory and Zhenya gave him a questioning glance. He had never imagined he would be here.</p><p>“What’s so amusing?”</p><p>Sid ran his hand from Zhenya’s thigh to his cock and Zhenya rolled his hips into Sid’s loose fist. “It seems you don’t find my form to be so funny after all.”</p><p>“Oh, I still do,” Zhenya said, and Sid was rewarded when his breath caught. “I just like it that way. I’d like you no matter what you looked like.”</p><p>Sid flushed, silently pleased. The evidence of that was in his hand, where Zhenya’s cock slid slickly, sheathed in foreskin and wet with the precome that dewed at the tip. He thumbed over it, and another drop welled up at the slit in its stead. The head was soft and glossy and Sid couldn’t stop himself from bending and sucking it into his mouth.</p><p>The taste of salt and musk bloomed across his tongue. Sid suckled gently, not daring to go too deep, even when Zhenya touched him under the chin, encouraging him on, and Sid’s cheeks panged with heat. Sid was unpracticed. He pressed the tip of his tongue to the tender furl of skin on the underside of Zhenya’s cock and was gratified when more of his seed spilled there.</p><p>With a groan, Zhenya guided Sid through a few indulgent pulls of his mouth, before bringing him up from Zhenya's cock to his lips, tasting himself in a kiss that showed Sid the full appreciation of his efforts.</p><p>Fumbling around beside them with one hand where his belt had fallen, Zhenya pulled out a small jar of oil, thick and just enough to get Sid’s cock wet, and his own. Then Sid was getting his knees underneath him, pressing their bodies together from chest to thigh. Sid could feel the hot, fat line of Zhenya’s cock against his belly that made Sid more hungry than any thoughts of breeding. They rocked together, eased by the oil and with just enough friction to have Sid perilously close to the edge already, rubbing himself against Zhenya’s slick, soft skin. He dragged his hands down to grip Zhenya’s ass, pulling Zhenya closer and rutting their hips together desperately. He could feel the burn in the back of his thighs and the nails digging into his shoulders.</p><p>Sid found Zhenya’s mouth, drawing his full bottom lip in and sucking. There was the rough edge of metal pressing into the skin of his chest and Sid dug his fingers into the earth. He could sense all of the bodies around them: the writhing bugs in the dirt and animals in their nests. He let the other presences fade into the background as they rocked monotonously. The only being that mattered was the one underneath him. He let himself sink fully into the tide that was Zhenya’s consciousness, his mind filling with all the fears and hopes and longings Zhenya had kept locked away in his heart since Sid had left.</p><p>Sid broke their kiss, overwhelmed as his ears filled with sweet words Zhenya spoke to him in the ancient language between quiet moans. Pressed cheek to cheek, Zhenya’s body slid into an arch underneath his. He was flushed high on his cheekbones and his breath came in quick pants. Sid sensed another presence at the edge of his mind a moment before he heard the rustle of leaves and then there were two pale ankles in his field of view. Sid bared his teeth and sent out a clear signal: <em>“Mine.”</em></p><p>The presence receded from their secluded nook and Sid turned his attention back to Zhenya, kissing down the skin of his neck, so delicate it seemed as if it could bruise with the brush of his lips. Sid sucked a mark over the chain, feeling Zhenya’s pulse beat wildly inside his mouth. Sid cradled Zhenya’s lower back and continued his way down, admiring Zhenya’s smooth chest and small, brown nipples. As Sid took a peak into his mouth and sucked softly, Zhenya let out two wavering exhales and spilled himself between their bodies.</p><p>Sid kissed his cheeks, his eyelids, the tip of his nose, before pressing his lips to Zhenya’s sweet mouth and rutting into the slick mess that coated his stomach. Zhenya held him around the back and stroked his spine as Sid shuddered through his release. It didn’t matter that they were both men and that it was impossible: Sid was sure that if he had been inside Zhenya when he came, there would be a baby dragon rider in nine months, and it would be theirs.</p><p>Sid pulled back to look at his face, the one that Sid held so dear, and stroked away the sweaty hair that was stuck to Zhenya’s forehead. “Come to bed with me?” he asked.</p><p>Zhenya pressed his tongue between his teeth in jest. “I just did.”</p><p>Sid dug his fingers into Zhenya’s side till he let out ripples of laughter.</p><p>“Please? I have to leave again tomorrow and I--”</p><p>Zhenya cut him off with another press of his mouth that made Sid’s heart ache. “It’s all right,” he soothed.</p><p>Sid guided them back to his home and drew water from the earth in silver tubes to fill a basin so he and Zhenya could wipe themselves down. Inside Sid’s house, Zhenya smiled when they passed the basket he had left for Sid on the way upstairs and his smile was still there when Sid folded Zhenya into the cool sheets of his bed, tucking himself close.</p><p>+</p><p>It was only a few hours later when Sid woke to the sensation of Zhenya carefully wrapping his necklace around Sid’s palm. He sighed so Zhenya knew he was awake and slowly let his eyes adjust to the morning light. As soon as his limbs had rid themselves of the last remnants of sleep, Sid began unwinding the necklace from his hand.</p><p>Zhenya made a protesting noise but Sid hushed him kindly. “I can’t take this Zhenya, I <em>can’t</em>,” Sid insisted, and placed the necklace back in his palm, curling Zhenya’s fist around it. “I need you to keep it.” He hoped Zhenya heard the plea in his voice, and understood that Sid wasn’t rejecting the meaning behind the gesture.</p><p>Zhenya gave him a long penetrating look, and when he found what he wanted, reluctantly pulled the necklace back over his head.</p><p>Sid traced the pattern of the chain over his chest. “I have Reona to remind me of you, and my mail. I have so many things--” Sid’s voice cracked, so he kissed Zhenya’s soft cheek and his eyelid and the side of his nose like he had done the night before to make Zhenya laugh.</p><p>Winding his fingers into the short brown waves at the base of Zhenya’s skull, Sid wedged his face back into the warm juncture of his neck, breathing him in for maybe the last time for twelve months. Sid had been right to fear this, but he would not trade it for anything. Zhenya stroked his neck and rubbed his back for a long time. They lay like that as the shadows stretched across the ceiling, until finally Sid had to pull away and sat upon the edge of the bed, staring stubbornly at the wall. He hadn’t felt dread like this in many years. It bored a hole in his chest like a worm in an empty rotten tree.</p><p>Zhenya curled his arm around his waist and kissed his hip. Sid sighed and touched the silken top of his head, expelling the tension from his body with a breath and allowing the dread to recede. It wouldn’t do him any good now. “I’ll be back, if I have to finish this blasted war myself, and then I expect you to help me make the fastenings for my sea-viper tack.”</p><p>Zhenya snorted into his hip. “If the war doesn’t kill you those <em>blasted</em> vipers will.”</p><p>Sid tugged on his hair till Zhenya uncurled his face from where it was buried in the supple nook of Sid’s hip. “Those vipers <em>like me</em>--”</p><p>Zhenya smiled and shook his head ruefully. “No, <em>I like you</em>, the vipers tolerate you--barely.”</p><p>Sid felt the corner of his mouth curl into a small smile of its own. He pushed the hair back from Zhenya’s face and his gracefully pointed ear, feeling a sense of sureness settle over him. “I love you.”</p><p>Zhenya’s eyes widened. “Sid--” but Sid bent to kiss him, smothering Zhenya’s words against his lips.</p><p>“Tell me when I get back,” he murmured, and Zhenya pulled him into a crushing hug by the neck. Sid kissed the parts of him he could reach.</p><p>“That’s not fair,” Zhenya whispered, his voice sounding thick in his throat.</p><p>
  <em>Few things ever were.</em>
</p><p>“I’ll make it up to you,” Sid promised, not knowing how that was possible, and pulled away for the final time.</p><p>He tried hard not to feel the absence of Zhenya’s mind too keenly before it had even been taken away.</p><p>+</p><p>Llyr fluttered onto his spot on Sid's shoulder with a heavy thump. “And how was your Dagshelgr?” Sid felt the familiar dig of talons into his skin. “What, I thought it polite to ask?”</p><p>A flurry of chatter whipped up around him as Sid’s soldiers gathered and their party made their way out of the forest on horseback, filled with a renewed hope. Sid heard many voices claim an elf would bear a child and that this time for sure an egg would acknowledge it. Sid wasn’t as convinced. Riders had a habit of springing from the unlikeliest of places.</p><p>Plus, he had his own beasts to concern himself with; there was the war to finish, and his ship and all of those who boarded her. Sid didn’t have any time for dragons. As he stepped onto the quarterdeck and regarded the port, he found it looked much the same as it did when he had arrived. Rays of sunshine cut through the clouds in shards of yellow, haloing everything it touched in misty light and making the water sparkle. Sid thought this time it might not be so long before he came back.</p><p> </p><p>+ Sid and the Sea-viper +</p><p>
  <em>Two years later...</em>
</p><p>The bright, white-gold sunlight stung Sid’s cheeks as he squinted, trying to make out the shadow of Sharktooth Island on the horizon. His face was raw from the wind and salt spray after a long journey through the maw of the ocean.</p><p>Though they hadn’t left the danger zone yet, the water around Sharktooth Island was known to be choppy at best and the obsidian sea heaved under the ship and against the breakwaters as they finally approached Sid’s home port. Llyr drifted down and landed ungracefully on Sid’s shoulder, his job helping them navigate completed. Sid pulled a piece of dry crust from the inside of his jerkin and held it out for Llyr to gobble down eagerly.</p><p>Zhenya materialized beside him, leaning against the railing of the forecastle as they passed by the piles of rock and carved monoliths that guarded the entry to the port. The last Sid had seen of him he’d still been asleep in the belly of the ship. Now Zhenya tilted his face into the same salt spray that had bitten away at Sid’s cheeks, and closed his eyes to the sun, his face flooded with joy. He was radiant in the white light of daybreak.</p><p>“We should help the oarsmen bring the boat in,” Sid pondered aloud.</p><p>Zhenya groaned and slumped. “That’s not my job.” He let his head roll back. “I’m here so you can show off. Big strong sea captain returning home with his most accomplished mate.”</p><p>Sid shook his head. “I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to bring you with me.”</p><p>“Yes, you do,” Zhenya leaned over and whispered slyly into his ear.</p><p>Someone behind them cleared their throat. Sid batted Zhenya's face away and turned to see Marcus patiently waiting to speak.</p><p>“We’re ready to dock.”</p><p>“Come on, I have other jobs you can do.”</p><p>Sid took in the grey wood of the port and the bald stony shore, polished by the waves. It was so different from the port at the edge of Du Weldenvarden, yet the air was still suffused with magic. Sid smiled at the black sailed sloops that lined the dock, as familiar to him as the back of his hand.</p><p>As they disembarked from the ship, out of the corner of his eye Sid caught Zhenya craning his neck as he looked around. After growing up in Ellesmere, he must feel exposed in an elvish colony where the only trees were bare and black, reaching towards the sky like spinal columns, the dampness in the air turning their bark dark and rich.</p><p>Waiting for them at the entry to the village was an elf woman, one of the tallest on the island--the majority being shorter and stockier by elf standard, as was Sid.</p><p>Sid greeted her formally in the ancient language: “May good fortune rule over you.”</p><p>“Peace live in your heart,” she replied.</p><p>“And the stars watch over you,” he finished, and she held her hands out to him. Sid embraced them and bent his head in respect. She was not the Queen--the elves had only one--but she was the island elder. Her hair was a stormy silver and her face creased with lines like water through stone over time.</p><p>There were tattoos on her face and pearls dripped from her neck in fat dewy globs. A second set of eyelids flicked over her eyes. Many elves were known to participate in body modification, but the colony of Sharktooth Island was well known for it. Sidney’s favourite folk tale growing up had been about a man who had gone so far as to become water himself and slip away. A tale a lot like that of the Menoa tree, except here there was no love lost, only love found.</p><p>The houses here were built from rock and wood, half-buried in grassy knolls. The hills had been sung into rising up and swallowing the buildings to create grass-covered rooves. Sid brought Zhenya to his old family home, the one he hadn’t stepped foot in for years. The sight of the honey wood walls and the stone hearth filled him with fond memories. He watched as Zhenya walked around slowly, nearly knocking his head on the ceiling, inspecting things and warming the long empty room as Sid basked in his presence there. He didn’t know how long they could stay; Islanzadi was already displeased with him absconding her chief swordsmith. But the war was over and Sid reckoned they all deserved respite.</p><p>There was a banquet held in the great hall for the returning party. Sid's crows nested in the rafters, every once in a while swooping down to steal bits of food. He felt that for the first time in a long time he could really relax. That night he enjoyed the entertainment and Zhenya’s deep laughter, and fell asleep to the lullaby of the waves crashing against the rocks and the even rise and fall of Zhenya’s breathing in the bed beside him.</p><p>+</p><p>Sid woke Zhenya at the first hint of sunlight, much to Zhenya’s dismay, and led him down past the craggy rock ledges where Sid knew the sea-vipers nested in the stone walls. They crept along the rocky coastline from boulder to boulder, Zhenya following close in his wake. Sidestepping a rock pool filled with hermit crabs and little silver fish that had been trapped by the low tide, Sid crouched. By the shore, a sleek black shape sat in the sand before him, raking through the grains with its claws, digging up crustaceans and molluscs.</p><p>Beside him, Zhenya hefted the harnesses higher up onto his shoulder, making the iron fastenings tinkle. The Fanghwal’s head snapped around, its swirling eyes a deep aqua blue.</p><p>“<em>Shh,</em> you’re spooking it," Sid hissed as the beast returned to what it had been doing.</p><p>“Me?” Zhenya whispered reproachfully. “I’m not the one that’s about to try and mount it.”</p><p>Sid glared at him over his shoulder. “Don’t say it like that,” he muttered darkly.</p><p>Zhenya made a choking snort, trying to stifle his laughter. “You have no issues mounting <em>me--</em>”</p><p>“Hush, I need to concentrate,” Sid mumbled, cheeks burning, and tried to clear his mind to make a neutral ground to meet on, and stretched it out towards the sea-viper.</p><p>First, he was hit with that piercing shriek that was meant to stun the mind and numb the senses. Sid pushed back against it. He knew buried somewhere in there was an Eldunarí: a dragon’s heart of hearts. He just had to figure out a way of appealing himself to it.</p><p>When Sid didn’t immediately shrink away, but pushed back instead, the sea-viper turned its dark mottled head at Sid and hissed, the frill around its head shivering. Sid’s conviction didn’t waver, even when faced with rows of dagger-like teeth. He heard Zhenya suck in a breath and hold it behind him.</p><p>Sid calmed his mind once more and redoubled his efforts, probing gently. The outer shell of the sea-viper’s mind was like that of a chestnut, needling Sid at every turn. It ruffled its great leathery wings, curious at Sid’s persistence. It switched its sleek tail, agitated as if he were a gnat flying about its head. Sid grasped for the intelligence he knew was there and slowly revealed himself from his hiding place, body and mind.</p><p>The sea-viper turned its head on him sharply. It possessed that kind of predatory alertness that Sid would never have a chance of besting. Its eyes filled him with the same hypnotic dread Sid felt when he spent too long watching the shadows in the depths of the forest, as if the more your eyes lingered the less likely you were to ever be allowed to leave.</p><p>She relaxed her barriers long enough for Sid to get a glimpse of her, the landscape of her being. For it was a <em>she</em>, and just the smallest look inside was enough to bring tears to his eyes. Sid realized then that he would never get tack on her; she was too wild. This was not one of the tame dragons he had grown up reading about in epics.</p><p>Sid reached for his purse and unfastened it from his belt. Without thinking too hard about it he stood fully and stepped away from the rock. She hissed at him again, and from behind him, he felt Zhenya’s fear flare, hissing out a warning in turn, but Sid ignored him and focused his full attention on the sea-viper in front of him. How could she ever begin to respect him if he introduced himself while cowering behind a rock?</p><p>Without hesitation he opened his mind to her fully. He was not some human she could stun with a shrieking fit. Sid was an elf, he was stronger than that, and most of all he was unafraid. There wasn’t anything about him that he wished she would not see.</p><p>With a cock of her head and a trill, she probed into his mind like a snake, slithering between memories. Sid winced as she went for his soft spots first, but held steady. Her frill rippled inquiringly as she examined parts of Sid’s life growing up on Sharktooth and life at sea. He felt her comparing it to her own experiences, violence, hunger, thirst. She prodded at new memories too, especially tender ones. Sid felt his body flood with burning heat as he was brought back to the moment he was reunited with Zhenya again, for the final time if Sid had any choice in the matter. The smell of the skin tucked behind his ear, and the way his body felt when Sid held him around the waist, and the way his presence filled Sid with the same warmth he was feeling now.</p><p>Finally, she touched on the memory Sid had been waiting on and her mind throbbed with renewed intrigue. Shaking himself from his daze, Sid pulled from the purse in his hands a pearl the size of his fist and held it outstretched in his palm. He had pulled it from the beaches of Eoam and filled it with energy from the floating crystals on the island. It was a priceless jewel, and as Sid showed her, it was hers if she would give him a ride.</p><p>Intrigued by what she had seen, she promised him so in the ancient language: a binding contract.</p><p>Cautiously, Sid stepped forward. He could still feel Zhenya’s fear present in his mind and tried to reassure him without taking his attention away from the sea-viper. Ever so slowly, Sid crouched and rolled the pearl across the sand. She regarded it for a moment before snatching it up between her impressive jaws and swallowing it down her gullet whole. With an aura of self-satisfaction, she turned to Sid.</p><p>
  <em>“You may approach.”</em>
</p><p>Her voice rang between his ears like nails on slate, but he did not hesitate. Sea-vipers were smaller than dragons and Sid clambered easily onto her back when she lowered her shoulder. He sat in the hollow at the base of her neck and wrapped his arms around her.</p><p>She was lithe and snake-like under him and up close her black scales shone with a dazzling iridescence. <em>“Your scales are beautiful,”</em> he told her and got a: <em>“You can say that however often you please,”</em> in reply before she crouched like a cat and launched herself into the sky.</p><p>Sid shrieked with joy as the wind beat his face. She climbed vertically into the air with powerful bursts of her wings until Sid lost track of what direction was up and what was down, entirely encased in clouds. She levelled out and they hovered at the peak just long enough for Sid to catch his breath before they dived back towards the earth. His stomach rolled worse than any sea storm he had sailed through. They were approaching the ocean at break-neck speeds, and Sid braced himself. From this angle the waves looked as solid as land.</p><p>A second before they hit the surface, she pulled up and glided. Water sprayed up all around them as she tilted and dragged the tip of her wing along the water. Sid clenched down with his legs and felt her scales dig in through his breeches and rip at his skin. He barely felt it, even as she finally dove, plunging them underwater, and the salt stung his wounds. They travelled through the fathomless depths, suspended between the seabed and the frothing surface. Streams of kelp rose up like an underwater forest around them as the sea-viper swam with the elegance and efficiency of an eel.</p><p>Sid felt his lungs burn and wondered for a moment if this was her plan all along: she was going to drown him, then eat him--but just as his body screamed for oxygen, they burst out once again into the open air, propelling herself from a rock into the sky.</p><p>She skimmed low along the beach, and with a roll, dumped Sid on the sand and soared away. He lay there like a beached starfish watching her disappear into the clouds until she was just a speck in the sky like one of his crows. He was bleeding into the sand for sure and he was numb from his head to his toes, but none of that mattered. He had <em>flown,</em> through the <em>sky</em>, on a <em>dragon--</em></p><p>Basically.</p><p>“Sid!” he heard Zhenya call past the buzzing that swarmed his ears. Zhenya landed heavily on his knees in the sand beside him. “Okay?”</p><p>“Never been better,” Sid croaked, and then promptly coughed up a lungful of water.</p><p>Zhenya thumped him heartily on the back until he could relax again into the sand. He turned his attention towards Sid’s legs and touched his thigh gingerly, making Sid hiss.</p><p>“Sorry.” Zhenya winced and carefully helped Sid get his pants off.</p><p>They were shreds of their former selves and Sid grimaced when he got a good look at his legs, ghostly pale from the icy water, except for the inside which was pink from abrasion and marred with deep cuts from her scales.</p><p>“It’s a good thing I like you, this is going to take a lot of energy to heal," Zhenya murmured and laid one hand high on Sid’s naked thigh and the other on his knee. It burned like hot metal and Sid covered Zhenya’s hand with his own, lending Zhenya some of his own energy. Zhenya hushed him and cut off the stream of energy Sid was trying to give him.</p><p>“You’re going to need it, I’m not carrying you all the way home,” Zhenya said, but his voice was gentle, like he might if Sid asked no matter how absurd, and he didn’t remove Sid’s hand from his own.</p><p><em>Home,</em> Sid thought dizzily, and closed his eyes, focusing on the sensation of his skin knitting back together. Home wasn’t just one place. It wasn’t here, or in Ellesmera, or even on his ship. It was wherever Zhenya was. He was more sure of that than ever.</p><p>“I thought for sure it was going to eat you and then I’d have to explain to everyone that you thought riding a sea-viper was a good idea and that I <em>helped</em> you.”</p><p>“I did it though,” Sid said, unable to wipe the smug smile from his face.</p><p>“You did,” Zhenya agreed reluctantly.</p><p>“I wouldn’t mind going that way.”</p><p>“I know, <em>that’s what worried me.</em>” There was an extended moment of silence before Zhenya muttered, almost to himself as if he thought Sid might be asleep, “So I crafted all that tack for nothing?”</p><p>Sid chuckled. “Nothing?” He grinned so hard it felt like he might just split his sunburnt skin. “I’m going to try that again tomorrow.”</p><p> </p><p>+ Hammerscale Ghosts +</p><p>
  <em>Four years prior…</em>
</p><p>Zhenya’s forearms were flecked with white, perfectly circular scars from the hammerscale that cracked and drifted off the iron into the air as he beat it. Zhenya could heal them-it would require a meagre amount of magic to do so--but he never had. They were the ghosts of all the weapons he’d forged before impressed on his skin and he enjoyed their company as he worked. He’d left his mark on the metal and in turn, it had left its mark on him.</p><p>It was peaceful by the forge. The autumn leaves rustling in the wind, burning in shades of ocher and crimson. Instead of trying to tame the surrounding forest as many elves had around their homes, singing the trees into artful shapes and erecting gardens, Zhenya had let them grow as they pleased. There were thick walls of green that surrounded the clearing, insulating him from the rest of Ellesmera so that the only sound he heard as he worked was the pounding of his hammer on metal.</p><p>This quiet was the reason he was able to pick up on the faint tread of footsteps coming down the overgrown path that led to the forge. He knew who it was before the man entered the clearing. Zhenya would recognize his presence in the darkest of caves, steadfast and earnest.</p><p>He looked up from his work a second before the man pushed through the leaves. “Back for more punishment?” Zhenya asked cheerily, letting his tools drop to his sides.</p><p>“You know I could never stay away.” Sid got close enough for the dappled light of early morning to hit his face and Zhenya could see his smile, stretched crookedly across his face like he was trying to hold it back and failing miserably.</p><p>Zhenya turned his attention to what was clutched in Sid’s palm. “Let me see it then.”</p><p>“I can’t hide anything from you.” Sid held out his hand. Sitting in the center of his palm was a polished lump of metal, like a silver pearl. Zhenya could tell Sid had run over it again and again with magic until it was as smooth as a marble.</p><p>“Not if it's metal,” Zhenya agreed as he admired what Sid had found.</p><p>“I’m going to get it right this time, I’ve got a feeling.”</p><p>Sid always had a feeling, and that feeling was stubbornness in the face of all odds. His last attempt at metalsmithing had left much to be desired and Zhenya had a feeling this attempt wouldn’t end any differently.</p><p>Zhenya plucked the ore from Sid’s palm. He would help him for as long as he needed to perfect it if it meant Sid would keep coming back. He examined the metal. It was a sizable chunk, more than enough to fashion a ring. Zhenya was impressed; he himself was like a walking lodestone, but not everyone had the same affinity for sensing metal buried deep in the earth. Especially in Ellesmera where most of the brightsteel had already been extracted by Zhenya himself for armour and weapons.</p><p>In his hand, Zhenya reshaped the ball into a long narrow bar with magic. He wasn’t normally one to cut corners, finding delight in every step of the process, but Sid was impatient and as it was, it was better to get to it.</p><p>Zhenya guided Sid the best he could, step by step through the process of beating one end of the rod into a long thin strand as evenly as he could--which was not very evenly at all. Sid clenched his jaw, and Zhenya mused at the resemblance between Sid’s head and his anvil: sharp, square, <em>thick.</em></p><p>With pinpoint focus, Sid heated the skinny strip of flattened metal and slowly began bending it around the ring form. It didn’t snap like it had the last time, but even after Sid broke the ring off the feeder metal, quelching it, and filing down the seam, Sid’s brow furrowed in displeasure as he examined the product of his labours. It was lumpy, too thick in some areas and thin enough in others to slice skin.</p><p>Sid huffed in frustration. He was covered in a sheen of sweat and Zhenya’s eyes tracked a droplet that ran down the side of his nose. “What’s the point in going through all of this when I could just produce the same results through magic?”</p><p>Zhenya watched him closely. That wasn’t very like Sid. “The metal receives its strength through the process of heating and folding. It wouldn’t be the same if you just simply stretched metal into the shape. You know that.”</p><p>“You’re right, I do. I’m sorry,” Sid said quietly and sighed. “I just feel like there’s not enough time.”</p><p>That was an odd thing for an elf to say, especially one as young as Sid. Sometimes it felt like there was too much time to ever fill. But Zhenya knew what he meant. With the promise of war on the horizon and the first troops leaving the next day it wouldn’t be long until they all got the call. Except for Zhenya; he would remain here and lead the metalsmiths. It was the one thing he hated about his position. Sid would be leaving eventually to lead the elven fleet, and Zhenya didn’t know when he would be seeing him again. His job was as important but with none of the risk.</p><p>“Why a ring?” It was something Zhenya had always wondered. Sid had many skills, but it would be fair to say this was not one of them.</p><p>Most of the elves made some kind of token to present to a family member or a mate, or if they did not have either, to the Queen before they left. A reflection of their accomplishments in case they never returned.</p><p>“It’s the only thing I’m not very good at.”</p><p>Zhenya snorted. “Oh, I didn’t know there was only <em>one</em> thing—”</p><p>“Hush, nobody asked you,” Sid said, and laughed. “It is pretty pathetic,” he admitted, and turned the ring over, and his face slowly settled back into a frown. That seemed to be his default expression these days and it had Zhenya’s gut curling uneasily. Sid was keeping something from him, he was sure of it, but he had yet to figure out what it was.</p><p>Zhenya examined his face. There were sooty smudges on his nose and neck and his hair was fluffed up into wiry black clouds from repeatedly tugging at it with his fingers.</p><p>Sid frowned at the ring in consideration, before flipping it to Zhenya. “Keep it.”</p><p>Zhenya caught it deftly, examining its misshapen form between his fingers. He would never receive Sid’s finished piece, but he could keep this one, covered in the witness marks of Sid’s effort, streaks of silver from uneven blows that would surely be mirrored on the face of his hammer if Zhenya were to examine it closely. They weren’t totally unlike Zhenya’s hammerscale ghosts.</p><p>“I’ll see you at the banquet tonight to send off the soldiers,” Sid said as he made to leave, breaking Zhenya out of his thoughts.</p><p>“Don’t worry, we’ll make a metalsmith of you before you too have to go.”</p><p>Sid gave him a look of resigned acceptance. “Some things are just not meant to be.”</p><p>Zhenya was left with a sour note staining the back of his tongue as Sid left the clearing. It wasn’t so different from the taste of metal; it was complex and not something he normally associated with Sid.</p><p>Clearing away his tools and dampening the furnace, Zhenya made his way back to his house. The building grew out of the side of a slanted willow and unlike most elven homes, only had one floor. Zhenya liked sleeping close to the ground.</p><p>He fingered Sid’s ring in contemplation as he dug through the clutter that covered his work tables until he found the case he was looking for. Inside, neatly divided into compartments, was a series of different chains Zhenya had made in his spare time. He pulled one, delicate and silver, from the bunch and slipped the ring onto it. It looked a bit funny, so ugly a ring on so fine a chain, but Zhenya enjoyed the juxtaposition.</p><p>It scratched at his skin when he put it on, a constant reminder of its presence. Zhenya admired it in the mirror, where the lumpy grey ring lay beside the faint white marks where a spray of hammerscale had once hit his chest. He felt the resonance of Sid's energy on it, like maybe their witness marks were of a different make, but they lined up all the same.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. + Lore, History, and Glossary +</h2></a>
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    <p>The Dagshelgr Invocation: an elvish custom that involves performing songs that influences plants and all living creatures to reproduce, growing Du Weldenvarden, the elvish magical forest, exponentially once every year.</p><p>Du Weldenvarden: “The Guarding Forest” a massive forest that covers Northern Alagaesia and where the elven capital Ellesmera is located.</p><p>Ellesmera: the capital of the elvish kingdom and the home of elvish royalty. The entire city was magically sung from the trees in the heart of the forest.</p><p>Alagaesia: a large continent in the Eragon universe.</p><p>Menoa tree: a magical tree at the heart of Du Weldenvarden, often the centre of magical rituals and the story of Linnea.</p><p><strong>Sharktooth Island:</strong> an island on the Eragon map, though everything else about it including the elvish settlement residing there is made up by me. In 5217 A.C. when the elves were emigrating from Alalëa from Alagaësia a band of elves split off from the rest of the convoy and settled on the island of Sharktooth. Named such for its distinctive shark-tooth shape, it’s located close to the island of the dragon riders Vroengard. After many years of seafaring and life on an island that is often plagued by harsh storms, the Sharktooth island elves are shorter and sturdier than those of their woodland dwelling brothers. Like the elves of Du Weldenvarden, the Sharktooth Island elves are fond of body modification through magic, even more so emulating the forms they find in nature around them. The island is windswept with high sea cliffs, low rolling hills and very few trees. Though the island is not habitable enough for a human settlement, the elves can survive there because of their magic abilities, drawing fresh water from the earth and coaxing the soil into nurturing produce, as they don’t eat meat. Though they probably could sing a forest onto life on the island, the Sharktooth elves preferred to embrace the natural landscape of the island and instead of building their homes from trees they built them from the lumber they do have, rock and nestling them into hillsides. Like the other islands in Alagaësia, there is a strong presence of magic that permeates Sharktooth, some of it having to do with the magic folk that reside there, though the elves themselves believe it has a lot to do with the sea itself. Elves as a race have no foundational religious system, preferring to rely on logic and reasoning, though there have been more than one Sharktooth elf that had ventured out on a long sea journey only to come back babbling of gods and other inexplicable things. (These elves are normally cast out to the outskirts of the island.) Though they are great sea adventurers, the elves of Sharktooth don’t venture onto the mainland unless they have to. There is often only one Sharktooth elf sitting on the Ellesmera council at a time. Sid is being groomed to take over this position from his father--he was not looking forward to it--though now he might be feeling a bit more open.</p><p><strong>Fanghwal (sea-viper): </strong>Like Sharktooth Island these are made up by me, but based off of two canonical creatures in the Eragon universe, the Fanghur (wind-viper) and Nidhwal (sea-dragon). The Fanghwal have dark, mottled scales and bat-like wings, long sinuous bodies and eyes the colour of the sea. They are smaller than dragons, but intelligent as well as possess an Eldunarí: a dragon’s heart of hearts. They emit a piercing mental shriek to stun their prey and possess the ability to spend extended periods of time diving underwater. Sid is the first documented elf to ride one.</p><p>Asfaloth: a horse name pulled from LOTR’s lore, not Eragon, meaning “sunlit foam”. In the films, he’s ridden by Arwen, in the books Glorfindel.</p><p>Llyr: welsh meaning “half-speech”, Irish meaning (Ler) “the sea”.</p><p>Reona: "reaper" in the ancient language.</p><p> </p><p>Just something for fun :)</p><p>
  
  
  
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